
V 

Book. H a^ 

SMITHSONIAM DEPOSIT 



THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE EDUCATED MEN 
OF THE COUNTRY. 



DISCOURSE 

PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE 

EUGLOSSIAN AND ALPHA PHI DELTA SOCIETIES 

OF 

GENEVA COLLEGE, 

AUG. 5, 1840, 
cl^S. HENRY, D.D., 

PROFESSOR OF INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY AND BELLES LETTRES IN THE UNIVERSITY 
OF THE aTY OF NEW YORK. 



(s> -'• 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETIES.C,-- ' 



NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET. 






MDCCCXL. 



A-5 



DISCOURSE. 



Young Gentlemen of the Literary Societies 
OF Geneva College: 

We meet, on this your anniversary, as a Brother- 
hood of Scholars ; and perhaps I should best have 
consulted the spirit of the occasion, if I had selected 
some subject of purely literary interest, or endea- 
vored merely to promote the elegant enjoyment of 
the hour. But I have taken the liberty to give our 
thoughts a more practical direction. I remember 
that but few, if any of us, are mere scholars. Those 
who have come here to day from different places, 
have come up from strenuous engagement with the 
intense life that is heaving and strugglmg all around 
us ; and when v/e go from here, it is to return into 
the crowd and pressure of that hfe again. And 
those who are about to be sent out at this time from 
this seat of learning, must leave "the still air of de- 
lightful studies," in this quiet and beautiful retreat, 
and go forth to do honor to theh Benignant Mother 
in the active service of th eir country and their God. 



On this account I have thought it might be ap- 
propriate and profitable for us, as from this landing- 
place, to look out over the scene in which it is our 
destiny to live and vi^ork; and to notice M^hat it pre- 
sents for v^arning and for guidance : — not forgetting 
indeed that we are scholars, but on the contrary, 
bearing in mind that our obligations are specially 
determined by the fact of our belonging to the edu- 
cated class in the nation. — It is therefore of the Po- 
sition and Duties of the Educated men of the coun- 
try, that I wish at this time to speak. 

It will not be questioned that the scholars of our 
country have a special vocation, which is determined 
by all that constitutes the peculiar characteristics of 
our country and of our age. It is incumbent on us, 
therefore, to comprehend the spirit of our country and 
of our age. We are to remember that we have fall- 
en on the nineteenth century and not on the twelfth 
— that we live in America, and not in Austria. I do 
not mean that we should not understand the Past. 
Unless we understand the Past, we cannot under- 
stand the Present ; for the Present is born of the 
Past. Nor do I mean that we should not seek to 
understand the most general spirit of the world, as 
well as of the country in which we live ; for our 



country stands in manifold relations with other coun- 
tries, and, rightly considered, moreover, there are, in 
every age, pulsations which throb throughout the 
heart of universal Humanity. Still, it is to the ac- 
tual mind and heart of our own country we must 
speak, if we mean to live and speak to any purpose 
in our own times, or even for the times that shall 
come after us. Rarely in the history of mankind is 
there to be found any great work of genius, of per- 
manent and enduring influence, which has not borne 
the form and pressure of its age. Not always in 
sympathy, often indeed in resistance to the spirit of 
their times, yet ever, with few exceptions, as those 
who knew and felt what was the spirit of their times, 
have the great thinkers and teachers of the world 
uttered themselves. And above all things is it re- 
quisite that the educated men of this country should 
understand the spirit of the country in which they 
are to live and work. 

The educated class represent the liberal cultiva- 
tion of the nation; and, to them, cliiefly, belongs the 
duty of sustaining and cherisliing the higher and 
more spiritual elements of social well-being. 

The manifold elements which compose the well- 
being of a nation may be comprehended under the 



two fold division of material or physical, and moral 
or spiritual. — In the material are included the 
means of physical support and comfort — food, clo- 
thing, and shelter ; the security of person and pro- 
perty ; the arts of life which serve to multiply and 
refine the sources of material enjoyment; in short, 
every thing that relates to the useful or to the agree- 
able — every thing that is implied in the proper 
meaning of the word civilization. 

On the other hand, the spiritual elements of na- 
tional well-being result from the unfolding and acti- 
vity of the principles of man's higher life, as a being 
capable of the Idea and Love of the True, the Beau- 
tiful, and the Good, — capable of discerning that 
these words relate to objects which have a reality 
and a worth beyond all material objects, a value in- 
dependent of all consequences of private advantage. 
Hence, among the spiritual elements of social wel- 
fare are to be reckoned the pursuits of pure science ; 
the productions of creative Art ; the sense also of 
justice, honor, patriotism, loyalty, and reverence ; 
and the heroic spirit that can dare and endure for 
unselfish ends ; in short, every thing that is implied 
in the culture of a nation as distinguished from its 
mere civilization. 



To the proper well-being of a nation it is essen- 
tial that these elements should exist in a due and 
proportionable blending-. It is indispensable that 
the material should be subordinated to the moral in- 
terests. Wherever and in whatever degree the rea- 
son becomes enslaved to the senses, there and in 
that degree do the people sink below their proper 
life, and fail to realize the true idea of a common- 
wealth. — Yet it is of the infirmity of our corrupted 
nature that the sensual life, as in individuals so in 
nations, is ever tending to predominate over the 
spiritual. 

In our country this tendency is prodigiously in- 
creased by causes connected with the physical 
growth of the country, and with the working of our 
political institutions. 

Our country offers the most remarkable specta- 
cle ever presented in the history of humanity. From 
three milhons, in little more than half a century, we 
have grown to seventeen millions of people. In- 
heriting an immense territory, teeming with bound- 
less resources, we entered upon the first mission of 
every infant nation— that of subduing the rude yet 
rich nature that spread out every where around us. 
In this task we have not been compelled to proceed 
with the slow steps that have marked the progress 



of other nations. To the work of unfoldmg the 
wealth of the new world, we have brought all the 
facilities afforded by the mature civihzation of the 
old world. The science, the skill, and the capital 
of Europe, which centuries have been slowly accu- 
mulating there, have been grasped and applied here 
with a boldness and energy that have wrought in a 
day the labors of an age. It is but a few years 
since we entered upon the conquest of a country 
v/ilder than Germany in the days of Csesar, and ten 
times more extensive ; and yet in that short space 
we have reached a point of physical development 
which twenty centuries have not accomplished there. 
The forests have fallen down — 'the earth has been 
quarried — cities and towns have sprung up all over 
the immense extent of our land, thronged with life, 
and resounding with the multitudinous hum of 
traffic ; and from hundreds of ports the canvass of 
ten thousand sails whitens all the ocean and every 
sea, bearing the products of our soil and manufac- 
tures, and bringing back the wealth and luxuries of 
every quarter of the globe. — Then, too, the tremen- 
dous agencies of Nature — the awful forces evolved 
by chemical and dynamic science — have been sub- 
dued to man's dominion, and have become submis- 
sive ministers to his will, more prompt and more 



powerful than the old fabled genii of the Arabian 
Tales. Little did our fathers, little did we ourselves, 
evei] the youngest of us, dream — in the days of our 
childhood, when we fed our wondering imaginations 
with the prodigies wrought by those Elemental 
Spirits evoked by the talismanic seal of Solomon — 
that these were bat faint fore shade wings of what 
our eyes should see in the familiar goings on of the 
every day life around us. Yet so it truly is. Ha! 
gentlemen, the Steam Engine is your true Ele- 
mental Spirit; it more than realizes the gorgeous 
ideas of the old Oriental imagination ; that had its 
different orders of elemental spirits — genii of fire, 
of water, of earth, and of air, whose everlasting hos- 
tility could never be subdued to unity of purpose ; this 
combines the powers of all in one, and a child may 
control them! — Across the ocean, along our coast, 
through the length of a hundred rivers, with the 
speed of wind, we plough our way against currents, 
wind, and tide ; while, on iron roads, through the 
length and breadth of the land, innumerable trains, 
thronofed with human life and freighted with the 
wealth of the nation, are urging their way in every 
direction — flying through the valleys ; thundering 
across the rivers ; panting up the sides, or piercing 
2 



10 

through the hearts of the mountams, with the resist- 
less force of lightning and scarcely less swift ! 

All this is wonderful ! I look iipon it with admi- 
ration, not unmixed with awe. The old limitations 
to human endeavor seem to be broken through — 
the everlasting conditions of time and space seem to 
be annulled! Meanwhile the magnificent achieve- 
ments of to-day lead but to grander projects for to- 
morrow. Success in the past serves but to enlarge 
the purposes of the future ; and the people are 
rushing onward in a career of physical develop- 
ment, to which no bounds can be assigned. 

Yet we must remember that all this is only the 
spectacle of the energies of a great people intensely 
directed to material ends. It is the unfolding of the 
conditions of physical enjoyment. And however 
great and important these are, they constitute but a 
part, and that a subordinate part, of the elements of 
social welfare and the true greatness of a nation. 
Unless interpenetrated and sanctified by the per- 
vading presence of the higher elements of spiritual 
culture, their tendency is to corrupt and degrade us. 
They can make us rich and highly civilized, though 
they can never give to civilization its highest charm 
of graceful refinement; for that is a spiritual quality, 



11 

and can only come of moral culture. They may 
make us rich; but may leave us vulgar, purse-proud, 
ostentatious, and sensual; and never, in themselves 
and of their own tendency, can they make us a 
wise, a good, and truly happy people. Besides, it 
cannot be denied, in a profounder view, that the 
physical science of the nineteenth century ; the mys- 
terious forces of Nature which it has evolved ; the 
tremendous powers which it has subjected to the 
will of man; and the hnmeasurably greater scope 
which he thereby gains, for rendering his outward 
life intense and diversified, have a tendency, not 
only to foster the spuit of absorbing worldhness, but 
also to engender a proud, irreverent, and godless 
spirit. I know that this is not its necessary result ; 
God be thanked that it is not. To the rio-ht-hearted 
inquirer, every new disclosure of science may only 
serve to cherish a lowlier sense of the httleness of 
man's knowledge, and a profounder reverence for 
the Great Being, who, though pervading and up- 
holding all Nature, yet, in his absolute glory and 
personal attributes, dwelling above all Nature, can, 
by our mortal vision, be only dimly seen in the 
glimpses of himself which shine through the enve- 
loping folds of the material universe. Still, wher- 
ever, among the mass of a people, phjsical science 



12 

is wholly or chiefly prized as it ministers to wealth 
and enjoyment, the spirit which it tends to engender 
is any thing but reverent. Imagine a people desti- 
tute of spiritual culture ; where science is pursued 
merely for the sake of compelling the powers of 
Nature to minister to man's physical convenience ; 
where there are no arts but arts of pleasure ; where 
the forms of honesty and justice are only outward 
forms, enacted and observed as politic contrivances 
for individual and general comfort; — ^ imagine such 
a people, and you have before your minds a people 
without honor or magnanimity, without public spirit, 
loyalty, or heroism, without reverence, morality, or 
religion. They might be civilized in the highest de- 
gree ; they might overflow with wealth; the earth, the 
ocean, and the air, might poiu' forth all their trea- 
sures ; they might be surrounded with all the means 
and refinements of material enjoyment, with not a 
crumpled rose leaf to disquiet the couch of luxurious 
ease; and yet they would be only a nation of re- 
fined animals, of civilized hrutes. "We should belie 
the instincts of our reason and conscience, if we 
should think otherwise of them. 

Happily, such a picture is only imaginary. — • 
Thanks to the benignant influences of Divine 
Grace diffused throughout the world, the reason 



13 

and conscience, the spiritual life of man, though over- 
mastered, can never be wholly crushed out ; and the 
social and domestic instincts are ever evolvmo- moral 
affections — love, self-denial, sacrifice, heroism — ■ 
which serve to exalt and purify the earthly life of 
man. None the less, however, is it true, that when- 
ever the material greatly predominate over the moral 
elements in the life of any people, then the spirit of 
the nation begins to approximate to the corrupt, tui- 
hallowed, godless state we have imagined. 

Now, looking at the condition of our country at 
this mom-ent, have we nothing to fear? I do not 
quarrel with the prodigious growth of the elements 
of physical prosperity. I only ask, whether we 
have not reason to dread an overgrowth ? Is not 
our danger on this side ? I know there are many 
w^ho have no other idea of national well-being than 
riches and greatness. So that a people can subdue 
the earth to serve the turn of their w^orldly uses ; 
so that they can accumulate w^ealth and the means 
of enjoyment; — that is the extent of their solicitude. 
They laugh at all tliis talk about the higher and 
more spiritual elements of social w^elfare. I thank 
God I am not of the number of such persons. 



14 

" Contempt is ever tlie growth of a thin soil ; " ^ 
and contempt of high moral and religious consider- 
ations is eminently the mark of a poor and shallow 
intellect. For myself, I must profess my conviction 
that we are very far from growing wise and good 
and truly happy as a nation, in the proportion that 
we are growing rich and great. I believe there is 
a prodigious and increasing overgrowth of the 
corrupting spirit of wordliness. I had rather we 
should be poor as Iceland, yet with its pure faith and 
morals and its love of letters, than we should go on 
increasing in wealth and greatness without a corres- 
ponding increase in spiritual culture and moral 
worth. I had rather — ^if this must be the alter- 
native. But it need not be. If God has planted us 
in a richer land, I do not see but we may unfold 
and appropriate its manifold resources, Avithout 
neglecting the culture of our higher life. We may 
dwell on the earth, and thrive ; yet we need not be 
mere thriving earth-worms. We may follow worldly 
callings, and yet not be worldly-minded. We may 
possess and enjoy wealth, without sinking into the 
life of mere material enjoyment. The danger is 
great, it is true ; but corruption is not the necessary 

* Richard H. Dana ; unpublished Lectures. 



15 

result of physical prosperity. — I cannot doubt that 
it is in the intentions of God, in the progress of our 
race, that the material world shall be still more 
perfectly subjugated, and its resources of material 
enjoyment be still more fully unfolded ; and yet the 
whole physical life of humanity be subordinated to 
its moral life — pervaded by it — yea, made to sub- 
serve its growth and perfection. If this be so, the 
problem is not to arrest the physical growth of the 
countiy, but to make it the means of more perfectly 
unfolding out proper humanity, by the culture of the 
elements of spiritual life. To contribute to the 
solution of this problem is eminently the vocation of 
the scholars of our country — of all who have been 
trained in hberal studies — of all who work in the 
liberal professions. 

Let us now for a moment advert to the workmg 
of our political institutions ; for in this aspect our 
country presents a spectacle no less remarkable 
than in its physical growth. I beg however a can- 
did construction of wdiat I am about to say. I am 
of no political party; and I shall not speak of party 
questions ; but oi principles and of the tendencies of 
principles, common to all parties ; and perhaps I 
may say some things which to neither party will be 



16 

entirely acceptable. Yet I cannot think that in a 
survey of the moral condition of our country, we 
should be justified in leaving out of view the most 
pervading and the most powerful of all the influ- 
ences that affect the character of a nation — ^its po- 
litical institutions. Nor can I think that courtesy, 
or the proprieties of an occasion like the present, 
should exclude all political views, except such as 
are known to be held in common by all. It seems 
to me that we should rather suffer every man freely 
to utter the thought that is in him — whether it be 
an echo of our own or not — if so it be uttered with 
deep conviction, with an earnest spirit, and with an 
honest purpose. Without any party bias, then, and 
with the highest respect for all those Vv^hose opinions 
may not coincide with my own, I shall proceed to 
express myself in my own fashion of thinking and 
speaking, relying on a kind and candid construction. 
Theoretically perfect as is the frame of our go- 
vernment, it implies conditions of virtue and wisdom 
on the part of the people, which if they do not ade- 
quately exist, renders ours the most dangerous of all 
forms of government ; and I must avow my convic- 
tion that in its practical working, or rather in its 
abuses, our system is tending with prodigious power 
to corrupt and demorahze the nation. 



17 

It is the fundamental maxim of all political ethics, 
that political Rights imply political Obligations : so 
much the more Liberty a people enjoys, and so 
many the more Rights they possess, so many the 
more are their Duties. — Yet at the present moment, 
notions of iJojpular rights appear to me to have 
sprung up and spread over the country, which are 
false, absurd, and dangerous. We have got the 
habit of taking for granted that the people have a 
right to do, whatever they please to do ; and that 
whatever they please to do is therefore right. Po- 
litical Right has thus become separated from Duty; 
and has practically come to mean nothing but mere 
Popular Will. 

We are continually told that the sovereign power 
resides in the people. This is in its naked form 
but a half-truth : and, as has been well said, a half- 
truth is often the greatest of lies. It is unques- 
tionably true that the sovereign power, in a certain 
sense, resides in the people ; but in the sense in 
which it is commonly understood, it is a great and 
pernicious error. — It is God's ordinance, and the 
necessity of man's nature, that man should exist in 
Society. To do this he must exist as a State — ■ 
that is, a community in which justice and social 

order are maintained. Government is the powers 
3 



18 

of the State organized, embodied, and put in action ; 
and the form of Government, is the particular mode 
in which the powers of the State are embodied and 
put in action. 

Now undoubtedly the sovereign power resides in 
the People, in the sense that the People have the 
right of determining the form of their Government. 
This is indeed a natural right, but it is so no fur- 
ther than as men have a natural riorht to choose in 
which way among several possible ways, they will 
fulfil a duty; and it is absurd to lay undue stress 
upon the term. It is not, however, an absolute 
right ; but a right growing out of a duty, and limited 
by duty. Society has the right of choosing the 
FORM of its Government, because it is the duty of 
Society to exist as a State for the maintenance 
of social justice, and must have some form of govern- 
ment; and it may choose any particular form it 
prefers, provided it fulfils the duty of the State — 
maintains the relations of justice — without which 
Society cannot exist. In this sense, unquestionably, 
and in so far as relates to the form of government, 
the sovereign power resides in the People ; still it 
is not precisely an accurate statement of this truth 
to say, that the people have the right to choose 
whatever form of government they please, without 



19 

regard to anything but their own mere will; for, 
unless the various forms of government are as- 
sumed to be equally adapted to the great ends of 
society, it is more true to say that the jDeople ought 
to choose — not that form of government which 
they may simply prefer, but — that form which they 
conscientiously beheve to be the best adapted under 
all the circumstances to secure the true ends of all 
government. 

Hence it is clear, that the foundation of govern- 
ment is not in the mere, unlimited will of the people ; 
and that the sovereignty of the people is not in mere 
natural right, but in duty. We are too prone in 
general to forget the great comprehensive truth, 
that rights and obligations ever go together. There 
is .scarcely such a thing in all the empire of God, 
as the ABSOLUTE right of doing w^hat one merely 
WILLS to do. The only absohite right in the uni- 
verse, is the right of not heing wronged. And in 
political affairs, neither the mere will of a majority, 
nor even of the whole people, can make a thing 
right, or justify their action. Nothing can be made 
right by mere w^illing to do it. — Still, as a right 
which is to be dutifully exercised, I maintain the 
doctrine that the sovereignty is vested in the people. 
And in the exercise of the sovereign power residing 



20 

in them, the people of this country have organized 
our form of government — and have defined and 
distributed the powers of the State. They have 
done this in our Constitution. Practically there- 
fore to all intents and purposes, the sovereignty, at 
this moment, and so long as the Constitution stands 
unrepealed, is lodged in the Constitution. That is 
the SUPREME LAW of the land; there resides the sove- 
reign power of the nation ; and it resides there out of 
the reach of the present will of a mere numerical ma- 
jority. The Constitution can be changed only under 
particular circumstances, and by three fourths of the 
states. 

To this Constitution the people of the United 
States at this moment owe an allegiance as loyal 
and profound, as was ever claimed for the divine 
right of kings, and much more sacred and enno- 
bling. To all practical purposes the political rights 
and duties of the people are just what they are 
defined and prescribed to be by the Constitution. 
They have no other political rights than are therein 
allowed; and are bound to all the duties therein 
enjoined. — The Idea, of the State in our country 
is : all the people acting under and according to 
the Constitution. This is what we mean by a free, 
Constitutional government, in distinction from a 



21 

pure Democracy, like that of Athens, where all 
the people act without a Constitution. Such is the 
State in theory. — In regard to the practical exercise 
of Sovereign powers, it takes three fourths of the 
people to constitute the State. A mere majority 
is therefore no more the State, than Louis XIV. 
was the State; and it is sheer absolutism, in our 
country, for the majority to set itself up as the State, 
just as much as it was in France for Louis XIV. to 
set himself up as the State. The Supreme Power 
of the nation no more resides in a mere numerical 
majority than in the minority. The majority pos- 
sess just those rights and powers which are given 
by the Constitution, and no others. What are they? 
As to X\\eh: personal rights — though these are not 
strictly in the question, yet they may here be 
stated — in common with all the inhabitants of the 
land, strangers or citizens, voters or not voters, the 
majority have the right of being protected as indi- 
viduals in their persons and property, provided they 
do no wrong ; and if they do wrong, of being fairly 
tried according to lav/ by the judgment of their 
peers. — As to tlieir political rights ; in common with 
all voters, they have in certain cases, in reference 
to the appointment of certain pubhc agents, the right 
of suffrage; and in regard to the questions thus 



22 

submitted to the whole body of voters, the majority 
have the right of deciding. The amount of the 
pohtical rights of the majority, then, is this : that 
their will, when legalhj expressed, is decisive in re- 
gard to a certain number of questions submitted by 
the Constitution to a popular vote. — So far therefore 
from constituting the State, a numerical majority of 
the people in their political action is simply an 
organic part of the State, just as the Legislative, 
Judiciary, and Executive, are organic parts of the 
Government; and its rights and powers, like theirs, 
are conferred, defined, and limited by the Constitu- 
tion ; and finally these rights and powers are inse- 
parably linked with duties — the majority are bound 
to act within their limits, and to act conscientiously 
there. 

These are the simplest elements of our political 
ethics. They belong to the very Primer of our politi- 
cal science. — Yet how well are they understood; how 
much are they felt ; how much are they practically 
regarded? — Alas, gentlemen, I know not how it 
may appear to you ; but to me it seems that in 
comparison with their indispensable necessity to 
our political salvation, these truths are scarcely at 
all felt. Unless I greatly mistake the spirit of the 
country, there is a blind feeling, widely prevalent 



23 

and rapidly increasing, as if the mere present will of 
a majority, however expressed, and on all subjects 
as well without as within its legal limits, is, and of 
right ought to be, the supreme power of the nation. 
Whenever the people are told that there is any thing 
which they cannot rightfulhj do, their impulse is to 
feel indignant, as if some monstrous outrao-e were 
perpetrated against the sacred principles of eternal 
justice, which they were called upon to avenge. 
To differ from the popular opinion seems to them 
a crime — a thing to be punished. They cannot 
understand that you have as good a right to your 
opinion, as they to theirs; that they diifer from you, 
as much as you do from them. — In proof that this 
is so, go and address the popular political assem- 
blages of our country. Tell them that you honestly 
believe it to be a possible thing that there shall not 
be wisdom and virtue enough in the nation to make 
the experiment of self-government successful ; and 
in nine cases out of ten you provoke their displea- 
sure, not merely for being bold enough to utter an 
unpopular doctrine, but as being guilty of treason 
against the sacred principles of freedom. Tell them 
that you think it best for the popular good, and 
therefore right, that the popular w^ill should be 
checked by constitutional restraints ; and ten to one 



24 

you will be hustled from the stand as an aristocrat, 
a monarchist, an enemy to the people. Or, if they 
allow you to remain there long enough, tell them 
that the original framers of our Constitution w^ere 
true and genuine lovers of rational freedom, and yet 
that they have framed the Constitution so as to be a 
check upon a present numerical majority ; that our 
frame of government in various respects is full of 
restraints upon the popular will; — ^and there are 
thousands and tens of thousands to whom such 
doctrine would be entirely strange and revolting. 
They would not even believe you. Yet you would 
tell them nothing but the truth — nothing which our 
public men do not know to be true. Why is it, 
then, that our public men rarely or never tell the 
people these truths, comment, explain, and urge 
them ? It is because these truths, however impor- 
tant and vital, are odious to the people ; and they 
will not bear them. 

From this erroneous and exaggerated notion of 
Rights, and this feeble sense of Duties, it is easy to 
see to what dangers we are exposed. When the 
people feel as if the cause of popular rights, as they 
understand them — that is, the right of the majority 
to do just what it pleases — is not only their own 



25 

cause, but the cause of every thing- most sacred, of 
Truth, of Freedom, and of God; what protection 
has society against hcentious abuses of power? 
In private hfe the man who does every thing he has 
a right to do, in the sense of the word nov/ in ques- 
tion — that is, every thing which the Law will not 
punish him for doing — is a villain. That we are 
not cursed with such villains at every tmii in life, 
we owe to the influence of conscience and the 
power of public opinion. But what protection is 
there in consciencCj or in public opinion against the 
unjust acting of a people firmly behoving m the Di- 
vine Right of a majority to have its own way at all 
events ? How much is the responsibility of a mul- 
titude felt by the individuals that compose it I Is it 
not practically as if it were a question concerning 
the seventeen millionth part of the national con- 
science? — In the name of Liberty the Jacobins of 
France cut off the heads of poor decrepid old wo- 
men for complaining of the national bread ; for not 
crying out lustily enough the watchwords of revo- 
lutionary frenzy; and even for the singular crime 
of being " suspected ofincivism" Hundreds of simi- 
lar atrocities you may find in the records of then- 
Revolutionary Tribunals. I do not say that wE 
shall ever witness any such abominable excesses. 
4 



26 

I do not believe we shall. None the less liowever 
are we bound to be aware of the dangers to which 
we are exposed from exaggerated notions of the 
rights of majorities. Their tendency is to make the 
popular will overbear all moral considerations, and 
all constitutional limitations. Popular majorities 
may come to feel themselves justified in reaching 
their ends by almost- any and every means. In the 
strife of party politics the people may come to feel 
as if it were allov/able to secure a victory in any 
way right or wrong ; and political corruption, if not 
openly justified, will be condemned only in the op- 
posite party, while in reality its heinousness will be 
lightly thought of, if only it be coupled with the 
Spartan virtues of dexterity and success. 

In such a state of things all honorable and up- 
right freedom of political opinion and action in pub- 
lic men is in danger of becoming next to impossible ; 
and the truly enlightened patriot, the true friend 
of the people — who, because he is their true friend, 
will not flatter their passions and echo all their no- 
tions, be they right or wrong — is likely to be de- 
prived of all scope for pubhc action. The demagogue 
will carry it over him by a thousand to one. There 
never was a country in the world, from the days of 
Pericles to the present time, which furnished such 



27 

unbounded scope for the demagogue as ours ; and 
never was a country so cursed with demagogues. 
The demagogue and the courtier are but opposite 
poles of the same character. The demagogue per- 
petually tells the people that they are sovereign — 
that there is no higher law than their will. Like 
the courtier he flatters and cajoles the sovereign, in 
order to mislead and rule him. What chance for a 
fair hearing has the honest friend of the people ? It 
certainly cannot be said to be unnatural for men to 
confide in and yield themselves to the guidance of 
those who bow to their will, flatter their vanity, or 
minister to their passions. In point of fact what 
public man dares resist the current of party opi- 
nion, and the demands of party discipline? What 
truths unpalatable to the popular taste, however vi- 
tally important to the public welfare, do the politi- 
cians of either party dare to tell the people 1 What 
popular errors, however dangerous, do they dare 
expose and denounce? — From the political and 
party presses, controlled by demagogues, the people 
almost never hear the truth. Morning, noon, and 
night, they are fed on falsehoods; and nursed m 
prejudices, hatreds and animosities. All considera- 
tions of truth, decency and reverence, give way 
before the violence of party spirit ; and the blind 



28 



and bitter spirit of party is continually stimulated 
by provocatives addressed to the ignorance, the pre- 
judices and violent passions of the people ; and m 
the midst of all their professed homage, love and 
respect for the people, the demagogues show clearly 
enough to the discerning eye in what real contempt 
they hold the knowledge, the wisdom and the virtue 
of the people, by the boundless impudence of the 
lies, flatteries and quackeries with which they seek 
to cajole and lead them. 

And which way tends the political destiny of the 
nation under these influences of the party presses 
and of political demagogues ? It tends to throw the 
absolute power of the nation into whatever party 
of demagogues, calling themselves friends of the 
people, can most successfully cajole and corrupt the 
people. It tends, in short, to a democratic abso- 
lutism — the worst of all forms of absolutism, the 
most pervading and the least conscientious. Any 
party supported by a popular majority, can at any 
time overbear the Constitution, and absorb into itself 
all the powers of the State. — -Thus with all the 
forms of the Constitution remaining, the Constitution 
itself may be eflectually subverted. And which 
way tends this state of things T Is not nearly 
every thing in the country now decided by party 



29 



majorities, procured fairly and legally, if i^ossible, 
■ but procured at all events ? And what is the great 
absorbing party question? Every one knows. Not 
a petty municipal officer in the obscurest village in 
the country, whose election does not turn on" the 
Presidential question. To what does this tend but 
to an absorption of all the powers of the State into 
the Executive? I do not say this as belonging to 
either party. I go with neither; and all that I 
have said is freely apphcable by all parties. I 
speak only of the dhection m which, unless we 
shut our eyes to all the lights of past liistory and to 
all the facts of present observation, we must beheve 
we ar& at this moment tending. Significant tokens 
have already displayed themselves, which he M-ho 
has eyes to read them, cannot fail to interpret. Is 
not the legislation of the country, at present and to 
a prodigious extent, originated and controlled by 
Executive influence? Has not the existence of the 
Senate, one of the august and inviolable branches 
of our constitutional government, been openly 
threatened ? Has not the independence and there- 
fore the constitutional existence of the Judici- 
ary been invaded by the proposal to render its 
judges removable at executive pleasure ?— Have 
we not come within a few years past to hear 



30 

the Executive spoken of as the Government ; to 
hear of the obhgations of office-holders to regard 
themselves as servants of the Executive, instead of 
being holders of puUic trusts for the Nation ; with 
various other expressions of the like kind — expres- 
sions never dreamed of in the days of Washington, 
expressions which would have been heard with hor- 
ror in those days, but which are now such familiar 
terms ni our political vocabulary that we use them 
without thinking of the changes they imply ? 

Now can any one fail to see that these influences 
of party demagogism, supported upon the false and 
exaggerated notion of the rightful supremacy of a 
popular majority, tend to the virtual overthrow of 
the Constitution? The forms of the Roman Re- 
public — its senate, its tribunes, and its consuls — 
remained for ages after all the powers of the state 
had passed into the hands of an absolute executive 
supported by prsetorian guards. This may never 
be our destiny. But how much better off are we 
likely to be with an absolute executive supported 
by the unconstitutional powers of a popular majo- 
rity ? — Many look for salvation in a change of men 
— in the party tables being turned. I look for no 
such thing. The danger lies not in any particular 
party, but in principles held by all parties, or at 



31 

least in the necessity which all parties will, I fear, 
ever be under of echoing, and supporting themselves 
upon, the erroneous popular doctrine which now 
lies practically at the ground of our system. I look 
for no permanent political salvation in a mere 
change of parties and men.— I look for political 
salvation only in a return of the people to true 
notions of liberty— to sound constitutional political 
opmions, to the spirit of loyalty, of reverence for 
law and order, and to public virtue. 

It is not, however, gentlemen, chiefly with refe- 
rence to its bearing upon the integrity of our 
Constitution, nor with reference to any changes 
which may hereafter be wrought in our mere 
political existence, that I have dwelt upon the 
popular notion respecting the rights of majorities, 
and upon the spirit and tendencies which have 
their root in this prevalent notion. For after all, in 
an abstract view, it matters comparatively little 
what form of government we have, provided it be 
well administered, and provided the people be truly 
cultivated, wise, and good. It is in the virtue, the 
moral worth, of the people, that the well-being of a 
nation essentially consists. But I have dwelt upon 
it, because pohtical institutions, government and 



32 

laws, are every where the most powerful of the 
causes that form the moral character of a people ; 
because every free government can do more to 
exalt or corrupt the morals of a nation than all 
other causes ; and because I cannot resist the con- 
viction that the actual political influences which are 
at work in our country, are tending to corrupt the 
moral spirit of the nation. 

Look at the working of parties among us. Is it 
not a grand political game — ^ the possession of the 
powers and patronage of the government being the 
stake ; demagogues the players ; and the people the 
pawns ? Is not everything decided by a hot conflict 
of party tactics 1 Is it not considered and called a 
hattle, a war ; and by an easy association has not 
the old corrupt adage : " all is fair in war," come to 
be a practical maxim ? Hence in our elections what 
scenes of violence ; what licentiousness of the party 
press ; what misrepresentations of facts for political 
effect ; what slander, calumny and abuse heaped in 
turn upon every eminent person in the nation ! 
Latterly the temper of people, in these respects, has 
passed into their great legislative body ; and the 
scenes of vulgar and indecent violence which have 
been recently enacted in Congress, are fitter for a 
bear garden than for the dignified assemblage of the 



33 

representatives of a great people. What must be the 
effect of this, re-acting again upon the spirit of the 
nation? Does it not tend to eat out of the heart of 
the people all loyalty — all reverence for justice, law 
and pubhc order ? Persons may think lightly of 
this ; but I ask them to tell us how there can be a 
great heroic people without reverence. It is im- 
possible. And in order to maintain in the heart of 
a people reverence for Justice, Law and Pubhc Or- 
der, the people must reverence also the Forms, the 
institutions, by which those great Ideas are em- 
bodied and represented. Form is throughout the 
Universe the necessary condition of every spiritual 
manifestation. The moral hfe of a nation is dis- 
played and seen and felt only in its forms, just as 
the life of the vegetable and animal world, is seen 
and felt only in its appropriate forms. When the 
people cease to reverence the institutions and per- 
sons which embody and represent the ideas of Jus- 
tice, Law and Public Order, it is but a short step to 
cease to reverence the ideas themselves. With the 
decay of reverence for the forms, dies out also the 
reverence for the substance. Like the besotted 
Africans they may indeed continue to set up the 
Fetisch gods of their self-will, and to dash them 
down at every caprice of passion ; but all sense of 
5 



34 

loyalty, all profound feeling of the allegiance which 
they owe to the sacred majesty of justice, law and 
order, will be merged in a wilful determination to 
have their own way at all events. 

Then again consider more directly the influence 
which the popular feeling that politics is a war and 
that all is fair in war, must have upon the private 
morals of a nation. How long will it be before 
that people who stick at nothing in politics will 
come to stick at nothing in morals ? It is impossible 
that political profligacy should not in the long run 
lead to corruption in private morals. All history 
proves this truth; and, gentlemen, our own obser- 
vation may suffice to give us more than one token 
of the direction in which we are moving. Within 
the last five or six years, there have been more go- 
vernment defaulters, and more breaches of other high 
pecuniary public trusts — ten times more in number 
and amount, than in the whole former period of our 
national existence. Will any one say that these and 
many other instances of moral dereliction ; as well 
as the scenes of lawless violence that so frequently 
occur, and the comparative apathy with which they 
are looked upon and forgotten ; cannot be traced to 
the working of political influences? To me it 
seems there is no cause so obvious ; no solution 



35 



so adequate. Let political corruption once be- 
come an organized element in the political action 
of a nation, and it cannot fail to corrupt the private 
morals of the people. I do not say that corruption 
has become an organized element in the political 
action of this nation; but I do say that within the 
last few years there have been developments 
enough in this direction, to overwhelm us with 
shame, and to become the ground of serious 
apprehension for the future. 

Thus, gentlemen, I have rapidly glanced at some 
aspects of our country, connected with its physical 
growth, and with the working of its political insti- 
tutions. It may perhaps be thought that the repre- 
sentation is overdrawn and falsely colored. I do 
not admit that it is so. It .viU not be denied that 
sources of danger and tendencies to evil exist in all 
nations. Those which exist in our case are cer- 
tainly NOT those which result from poverty -desti- 
tution of physical resources, skill, enterprise and 
energy; nor from political restraint or oppression. 
They ARE precisely those to which a rich and free 
people— an intensely enterprismg and intensely 
democratic people — are exposed. Besides, it is 
chiefly oi principles and tendencies I have spoken; 



36 

and as to what I have said respecting the evils 
actually/ existing among ns^the partj press, dema- 
gogues, unconstitutional notions of popular rights, 
political corruption — I maintain that it falls below 
the ^truth of facts. I do not say that these evil 
inflaences will soon or ever work the actual down- 
fall of the nation ; but I do say that such is the 
inevitable result of their unchecked working. I do 
not say that there exist no checks. I freely and 
gladly admit that there are manifold conservative 
powers in action amongst us. But notwithstanding 
these better influences, the dangers to which we are 
peculiarly exposed are of such sort and so great as 
to beget reasonable apprehension ; at all events they 
show the immense importance of specially cultiva- 
ting the higher moral elements of national welfare, 
by which alone the dangerous tendencies to undue 
worldliness and to political and social corruption can 
be effectually counteracted. 

It is in this connection that I urge the duty which 
rests upon the educated men of the country of stri- 
ving to exalt and purify the intellectual and moral 
spirit of the nation. Not that I would make an in- 
vidous distinction ; not that the duty does not rest 
upon all classes, upon every true patriot and good 
man. But it is a body of young scholars whom I 



37 

address : it is upon the body of the educated men of 
the country that the duty in question eminently 
rests. Of the culture of the nation they are the 
proper representatives, and the special guardians. 
If they are indifferent and negligent what other 
class will be earnest and faithful? "What other 
class could discharge then special obligations ? 

Eminently then upon the educated class rests the 
obligation of cherishiug the higher intellectual and 
moral interests of the commonwealth. It is a duty 
which in this country is not only immensely impor- 
tant, but surrounded with pecuhar difficulties. — 
Amidst special tendencies in the spirit of the nation 
to a predominating worldliness, it is the vocation of 
our scholars to cherish in themselves and diffuse 
around them a love of science, of letters, of art — of 
all that is liberal. — Unaided, and even counteracted, 
by the working of our political institutions, they are 
to strive to extend the spirit of political virtue' — 
public spirit, heroism, reverence for law and order. 
In their endeavors to exalt and fortify the private 
morals of the nation, they find their exertions coun- 
teracted not only by the ordinary temptations v/hich 
surround mankind, but also by the strongly demo- 
rahzing tendency of our party politics. Thrown 
so early, too, as our young scholars are into the 



38 

struggles of professional exertion ; isolated from 
each other in the midst of the intense practical and 
material life that is around them, they are greatly 
exposed to the danger of losing the love of good 
letters, the liberal and cultivated tastes, which they 
may have gained ; and of surrendering themselves 
to the very influences which they should strive to 
counteract. 

But if we cannot expect that the body of our 
educated men will go forward and perfect themselves 
in a high and refined cultivation, there is yet one 
part of their vocation to which it is right to expect 
them to be faithful. This is to preserve the spirit 
of the LIBERAL callings. The liberal Professions 
have indeed utility, and not heauiy, for their end ; 
and in this respect ihej differ from the liberal Arts. 
But still they are liheral professions ; because they 
are, according to the idea of them, free from the 
necessity of seeking private gain or advantage as 
their end. They have utility for their end ; but it is 
the public utility, and not the private advantage of 
those who pursue them. In other callings, impor- 
tant as they are in their results to society, and 
respectable as they are in themselves, the end for 
which they are pursued is wealth or a livelihood. 
This is in general the idea of them, and the reason 



39 

why they are followed. On this gi-ound rests the 
expectation that the callings of the merchant, the 
banker, the farmer, the artisan, will be followed to 
any extent required by the public interests. But, 
in the idea, at least, of the liberal professions, 
although their members must have a livelihood in 
order to practice them, yet they are not to practice 
them for the sake of the livelihood. Herein lies 
the ground of the more dignified position and more 
respectful estimation which society has accorded to 
the liberal professions. The clergyman, the phy- 
sician, the teacher, the lawyer, are supposed to 
engage in their several callings for the sake of the 
public welfare ; and in proportion as they make 
their professions mere means to private ends — 
even their own livelihood, they degrade their call- 
ings, and forfeit their title to public respect. 

In the olden times, this idea of the liberal pro- 
fessions was more distinctly recognized than at 
present : on the one hand, the members of the 
liberal professions were expected to perform the 
duties of their callings without pecuniary charge ; 
and on the other hand, the people were supposed 
to be under obhgation to provide freely for their 
modest yet dignified support ; and to hold them in 
honorable estimation, all the higher for the worldly 



40 

advantages or chances of advantage they snrren- 
dered. — At the present day also we see the recogni- 
tion of this idea, in the sentiment of the incongruity 
of a clergyman being devoted to mere worldly 
pursuits ; in the indignation which would be felt 
against the phjsician who should refuse the gra- 
tuitous succors of his art to the sick and dying 
poor ; in the disgrace, and probable expulsion from 
the society of his brethren with which a lawijer 
would be visited who for the guerdon of pecuniary 
reward should lend himself to pervert the course of 
justice and become a villain's tool. — Yet it is to be 
deeply lamented that there is too little of the true 
spirit of the liberal callings, both among those who 
follow them and in the community at large. Let it be 
cherished, and kept alive and quick in the minds of 
our educated men, and incredibly great and salutary 
will be its influence in exalting and refining the 
spirit of the whole nation. 

Again : let our educated men shun the politician's 
trade. I do not say they should never accept of 
public offices of trust and honor, nor that they 
should never seek them ; but they should never 
seek them for private ends, and they should only 
accept them when they believe they can fill them 



41 



honorably and independently for the public good. 
Our scholars and professional men should take a 
deep interest in politics; and one class of them 
should study them profoundly; but never should 
they become mere politicians, partisan aspirants for 
popular favor and applause, greedy seekers of office 
and the gains of office. They should aim to be 
mdependent, free-spoken teachers of political truth 
and political duty. They should strive to make 
themselves understood as a body of honest counsel- 
lors, seeking by pen and tongue and personal influ- 
ence to make the people truly enlightened on all 
political doctrines and measures ; to whom the peo- 
ple may look for fair discussion, true information, 
and sound advice. Let them tell the people the 
truth — the truth which the demagogues will never 
tell them. 

Were it not that a wisdom in the manner, and a 
blamelessness of character almost more than human, 
might seem requisite in order not to impair the pecu- 
har spiritual influence of their office, I would even say 
that the ministers of religion should become political 
teachers of the people from the pulpit. I do not 
mean that they should meddle with party politics, 
nor that they should treat political subjects — whe- 
ther general principles or special measures — ^as 
6 



42 

politicians. Let them leave that to others. But 
that it should be inexpedient (when done without 
impropriety of language or manner) for them 4o 
urge distinctly upon the minds and consciences of 
their flocks the sense of Christian responsibility in 
the exercise of their political rights, is the fault of 
the people. To "honor the king" is a sacred in- 
junction which in Holy Scripture stands in imme- 
diate connection with the precept to "fear God;" 
that is to say, a Christian people are as much bound 
to discharge christianly their political as their other 
social duties ; and it is the business of the ministers 
of religion to enforce every branch of moral duty. 
I can conceive that the clergy might, with such 
simplicity and affectionate spiritual earnestness, so 
manifestly free from all selfishness or worldliness of 
tone or purpose, unite in the habitual practice of 
urging the obligations of Christian morality in the 
exercise of political rights, as not to impair, but ra- 
ther to increase the salutary influence of their ofl&ce. 
That this can scarcely be expected in fact — that 
the pulpit must so carefully abstain from coming 
into contact with the actual beating heart and life 
of the nation, seems to me a sad necessity. 

Again: upon the educated men rests especially 



43 

the duty of sustaining the cause of sound popular 
education, as well as all higher cultivation of letters, 
science and art. We must beware of leavintr this 
great cause in the hands of mere politicians. The 
system of pubhc instruction indispensable to the 
w^elfare of every nation, and eminently of ours, 
requires that moral and religious culture should 
never be separated from a wholesome and wisely 
adapted intellectual training. I have no faith in 
the mere Lord Brougham "schoolmaster." He 
may be ever so much " abroad among the people," 
and yet do the people as much harm as good. I 
have no faith in the mere diifusion of popular 
knowledge, as an adequate culture of the people. 
The minds of the young should be trained, strength- 
ened, formed into right habits, imbued with right 
principles, with the elements of future self-culture 
and self-guidance, — not merely stuffed with a crude 
mass of superficial facts, miscalled " useful know- 
ledge." 

Above all I have no faith in the merely negative 
religious character of popular instruction. I regard 
it as one of the most monstrous solecisms that the 
popular education of a Christian nation should be 
organized — if not with an atheistic forgetfulness 
that there is a God, yet — with such a studied 



44 

avoidance of almost everything distinctively Chris- 
tian. The political vt^elfare of this country can be 
secured by no diffusion of mere knowledge. Educa- 
tion — the education of the mass, must be thoroughly 
Christian. There is no country on the globe 
where the social virtue and political prosperity of 
the nation so entirely depend upon the intelligence 
of the people being pervaded by a deep sense of 
the old-fashioned Christianity which recognizes the 
Gracious Influences of God's most Holy Spirit, con- 
ferred for Christ's sake and through the Church, as 
the only source of goodness in man, and the only 
sure safeguard and support of pure morals and true 
national well-being. 



I have now, gentlemen, given (and very imper- 
fectly, I am sensible) some brief suggestions as to 
the position and duties of our educated class, in 
relation to some of the evils of our times, and more 
especially to some dangerous tendencies to which 
we are exposed. If these dangers exist, surely we 
shall neither diminish nor avoid them by shutting 
our eyes to the fact. Nor ought the full and frank 
statement of them to be stigmatised as the croaking 
notes of feeble alarmists despairing of the republic. 



45 



Against all such reproaches I only stand up the 
more stoutly. I plant myself on the ground estab- 
lished by phHosophy and by history ; and I deny 
that there is anything in the human nature of the 
nineteenth century, or any charm in the frame of 
our government, which can ensure us against the 
fate that has fallen upon other nations. — If, then, 
there are dangers to which we are exposed, the 
true practical wisdom is, neither to despise, nor to 
exaggerate them; but to see, to admit— and to 
guard against them ; neither to rest in a vain con- 
fidence, nor to abandon the cause of our country as 
hopeless ; but to extend and quicken all those 
influences which we know assuredly can and will 
secure the permanent welfare and tme glory of the 
nation. 

Let us not shrink, then, from our position. Let 
us manfully stand up for the truth. Democratic 
institutions have no intrinsic power to make us a 
wise and good, a truly and permanently happy 
people. Riches cannot do it. Diffusion of know- 
ledge cannot do it. All these together cannot do 
it; they cannot even ensure us agamst downfall 
and ruin. But there are things that can do it. Let 
the influence of Christianity really and practically 
control the pohtical as well as the social life of the 



46 

nation; let the people exercise their rights from 
a pure sense of duty; let there be a proportionable 
diffusion of the spiritual elements of national wel- 
fare ; in a word, with civilization let there be 
combined a proportionable culture founded upon 
CHRISTIANITY ; and we shall certainly be not only a 
rich and great, but a v/ise, a good, and truly pros- 
perous nation. 

Here, then, in the promotion of these great objects 
is the vocation of all good citizens, and eminently of 
the educated men of the country. Let those who 
belong to this class be true to their high calling, and 
by the favor of Almighty God we may indulge the 
noblest hopes for our country and for the great 
cause of Human Advancement. 



NOTE. 

It was not at first my intention that the foregoing Discourse 
should be printed ; and it is only in compliance with the 
renewed request of the young gentlemen to whom it was 
addressed, that it now appears after an interval of several 
months from the time of its delivery. 

I should not have adverted to these circumstances but for the 
fact that during this interval we have passed through one of the 
most intensely exciting political struggles that has ever agitated 
the country ; and it may perhaps be thought by some that if I had 
waited till the termination of this contest, I should have written 
differently ; or at all events that the results of the struggle do in 
fact go to countervail the force of some of the views presented 
in the foregoing pages. 

I think it right therefore to add that while my address is (of 
course) pi'inted as delivered, I am not insensible to one very 
striking fact connected with the recent elections — the imme- 
diate subsiding, namely, of the public feeling, the tranquil and 
good-natured acquiescence in the result, notwithstanding the 
extreme violence of the previous excitement. It is a pleasant 
circumstance : it is a good omen. 

As to the rest, however, I must take the liberty to say that 
the struggle just closed furnishes nothing to impair, but on the 
contrary strongly confirms the impressions I have expressed in 
regard to the demoralizing influence of these party conflicts, and 
to the fact, and great and increasing prevalence, of political 
corruption. Particularly I believe that our political partisan 
newspapers — though not without their good uses — are on the 
whole A VERY GREAT MORAL CURSE to the nation, 

C. S. H. 

New York, Dec. 1, 1840. 



r'a m 



Lb N 10 



^yCn^Cc , 









PROFESSOR HENRY'S DISCOURSE 



AT 



GENEVA COLLEGE. 



THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE EDUCATED MEN 
OF THE COUNTRY. 



